Whitehorse Daily Star from Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada • 2

The Whitehorse STAR Thursday March 18 1999 1 Yukon Tickets to territory popular in Germany i other Western Canadian destinations said basically he stated and decided to make the change During the trip other airlines showed interest in coming to the Yukon in future years Air Transat the Montreal-based company flew charter trips to Whitehorse from Europe last summer However it chose not to this year According to Grindlay Air Transat may look at returning for the summer of 2000 because of the positive results with its German counterpart Transat was very interested in how well Condor was said Grindlay One reason Condor is doing better than Air Transat did last year could be that Condor is a well-known German company whereas Air Transat is a lesser-known Canadian company he said But Grindlay thinks the Montreal trips started the ball rolling fotCondor Transat paved the way for this flight this year" Beside Air Transat Grindlay said that even Air Canada is looking at possibly running Europe-to-Yukon flights in the future The United Kingdom and Germany the two destinations on the tourism excursion are the two largest overseas markets for tourists coming to the territory While the Yukon tourism department is concentrating on these two markets Grihdlay said starting to look at other areas such as Asia Pacific for the future By JASON SMALL Star Reporter There could be more German tourists in the Yukon this summer because a German charter tickets are celling quickly David Grindlay manager of marketing operations for the territorial Department of Tourism said Condor Air which will be making weekly flights to Whitehorse from Frankfurt is on its way to selling out for the whole tourism season Grindlay was part of a group along with Tourism Minister Dave Keenan from the department who travelled to conferences in the United Kingdom and Germany to promote the territory The deal with Condor Air a subsidiary of the German airline Lufthansa was announced before the European sojourn which started at the end of February During their visit to Germany the airline gave the team an update on sales for the flights to the Yukon were told by Condor that June July and August are sold said Grindlay Tickets for May and September are still selling The 18 weekly round-trip flights will begin on May 19 and run to early October However the October trips will mostly be for picking up people returning to Germany Grindlay said senior manager for overseas sales was surprised at how quickly the Yukon trips sold out has never seen a new route sell Star FHa Photo MORE SUMMER ARRIVALS EXPECTED Condor Air a subsidiary of the German airline Lufthansa reports that its seats to the Yukon are sold out for this June July and August always been confident that the product in the Yukon is very There were other advancements in European air travel made during the two-week junket Canadian Airlines International Ltd announced it will cut the cost of a trip to Whitehorse from the UK via Vancouver It will now cost between $1250 and $1500 CDN Grindlay was not sure of thecxact price from before but felt it was close to $2000 CDN Grindlay said the group spoke with the Canadian Airlines office in London explaining that the cost to Whitehorse was much higher than most Tans companies owe bach pay board iryies By CHUCK TOBIN Star Reporter Three Whitehorse taxi companies do owe thousands of dollars in back pay to drivers for overtime hours worked says the Yukon Employment Standards Board In its decision on an appeal filed by three local companies tire board has ruled in favour of the Yukon labour services branch The branch ordered an audit of the three companies following several complaints from taxi drivers working for Global Taxi Services Ltd in late as said Grindlay of die comments from die Condor manager was extremely surprised and very pleased at the rapidity with which this sold Grindlay said the tourism department was not surprised at how well the Yukon is doing as a destination for Europeans 1997 As as result of tire audit ordered in February 1998 labour services found that drivers were not being paid the overtime rate for the four overtime hours worked during their 12-hour shifts The branch subsequently ordered the companies to pay back wages and the companies appealed The board conducted its hearing March 3 and issued its ruling last Friday For Global Taxi Service the initial order involved $31 244 in wages owed Fifth Avenue Taxi was ordered to pay $14436 and Yellow Cab Ltd was ordered to pay $12440 mJUajfmt UliULrM (jm-rJ I )y by the end of next week The case involves 13 drivers for Fifth Avenue 18 for Yellow Cab and 12 for Global The companies have 14 days to file an appeal against the decision with the Yukon Supreme Court The court explained Werlin would not retry the case but examine whether an error in law was made whether the facts justify the decision and whether the board had jurisdiction over the matter During the hearing and since news of the audit of taxi companies broke early last winter companies and drivers alike have argued that forcing companies to pay overtime could be more detrimental than good Drivers have said and testified they make it on an eight-hour day Company representatives have suggested they can't afford to pay drivers anything but straight-time hours Under the employment act employers must pay overtime at 15 times the regular hourly rote for any time worked in excess of eight hours a day or 40 hours per week Jackson said none of his drivers are unhappy and the complaint did not originate within his company In fact he said when the drivers were testifying it was as though they were the defendants Fifth Avenue and Yellow pointed out to the board that they signed The decision however does instruct labour services to recalculate wages owed using an 1 1-hour work day instead of a 12-hour shift is the third reassessment in this case and there is going to be Graham Jackson owner of Fifth Avenue Taxi said in an interview this morning services is breaking federal government Jackson said drivers for instance are often picked up and taken to work and then driven home Labour services however refuses to acknowledge transportation to and from work as a taxable benefit that could be calculated as remuneration for the employee But Revenue Canada says employees who have transportation provided to and from work are receiving a taxable benefit Jackson pointsout Brian Werlin director of labour employment standards said this morning the ride to and from work is being viewed under the Employment Standards Act as a gratuity not part of the wage package are specifically excluded from our definition of Werlin said The recalculations are underway to determine how much the drivers are owed in back wages based on the 1 1-hour shift instead of the 12-hour day the desire he said to have those recalculations completed agreements with drivers indicating cabbies would step out of their cars for three hours a day thereby reducing their work day to nine hours And one company had an agreement with it drivers that a work day would be eight hours and that anything over that would be at the request of the driver and not considered overtime Labour services argued that available records do not record any breaks that drivers take and were able to support the contention that drivers work anything fewer than the 12 hours But the board did agree that drivers are apt to take some meal breaks or coffee breaks and thereby ordered the recalculation based on an 1 1 -hour day In its ruling the board upheld the findings of position of labour services in that: The companies did not comply with the minimum wage requirements for taxi drivers set out in the Employment Standards Act The method of calculating wages owed was fair but for the requirement to change to an 11-hour day instead of using a 12-hour shift The companies draw up their own agreements to supersede the authority of the act The companies did not keep proper records and should be encouraged to do so to respond to these types of enquiries 'Wade and ZJalitlut are proud to announce tL arm Iflflaraya 'Uictoria £md(e on Ward 4th at 717 pm at WJliltelxone (f 'eneratJdoip'dat SptiJtLJLi Qnmitn ILL imi (jmJLuCJLm Vv "'f i.